Transcript Jenna Lutton, Contemporary Technologies, Inc

Internship with Contemporary
Technologies
(Remote DBA Experts)
Jenna Lutton
February 1, 2007
Roadmap







About Contemporary Technologies (CTi)
Life outside CTi
Project Overview
Project Details
Internship Experience
Acknowledgements and Thanks
Questions
Contemporary Technologies


Located in Downtown Pittsburgh in 4
Gateway Center
Two subdivisions:


Enviroware – Software designed specifically for
companies who treat, store, and dispose special
case materials
Remote DBA
Remote DBA Experts


Offer remote database administration services for
over 50 companies
Support




Oracle
Microsoft SQL Server
Legacy Systems
Sell a “Team approach” to database administration


Instead of buying one DBA, you buy a team of DBA’s who
all help support your system
Teams grouped by database type

Mission: To provide expert service to their
customers and to provide the best work
environment for their employees

“Like No One Else!”
Software/Systems



Windows
Red Hat Linux
Unix




Sun Solaris
AIX
HP-UX
Oracle and SQL Server clients
Life Outside CTi

Home Life


I’m a pseudo-aunt!
New puppy!
Aiden Matthew Connelly
Sophie
Project Overview

Page Audit Project


Documentation Project


Keep a record of all alerts we receive and stop
invalid alerts
Standardize documentation
DBA for Customers with Stable Systems

Perform common “DBA” tasks
Total Hours Spent by Project
Total Hours Spent By Role
Total Hours By Project Role
Meeting, 4 hours,
1%
Testing, 3 hours, 1%
Installation, 8 hours,
3%
Training, 10 hours,
3%
DBA, 44 hours, 15%
Research, 28 hours,
10%
Documentation, 196
hours, 67%
Old Paging System
Alert Message
Generated
CTI Exchange Server
Customer
Database Servers
DBA Cell Phones
Page Example
Paging System

Issue: Primary DBA’s were on call all of the
time for their customers


Had to find a way to reduce unnecessary pages
Goal: Reduce stress
New Paging System
Oracle Pages Folder
Alert Message
Generated
CTI Exchange Server
Customer
Database Servers
On-Call Phone
Page Audit Project

Issues after new paging system:


Didn’t stop invalid pages from occurring
Page Audit Project created to reduce invalid
pages


Documentation
Invalid page – Example:


Monitoring script fixed the problem
Issue with the server and had to comment out the
job or had to install a different monitor

Worked with UNIX job scheduler, cron and the vi
Editor
Documentation Project


Documentation key to team approach of
database administration
There were little to no standards



Documents hard to find, not in the same place
Document for one customer contained information
that the same document for the next wouldn’t
Very difficult for DBA’s to find information about
other customers

Created a standard template for:




VPN Setup documents
Database details documents
Created/revised all customer documents to fit
a standard format
First introduction to Microsoft’s SQL Server
DBA For Customers With Stable
Systems


Crucial project for my Oracle DBA training
Tasks:




Check filesystem space
Check listener log size/database alert log
Check for any space issues in the database
Goal: Catch common issues before they
occur
Challenges



Had very little experience in an Oracle
database
Knew next to nothing about Unix/Linux
commands
Paranoid about causing production problems
Filesystem Space


Unix command: $df –k
First indication of space issues
Listener Log


Listener: process that constantly “listens” for
incoming database connections
Logs all activity to a log


Log is always in $ORACLE_HOME/network/log
If log too big, you will need to resize it

Use Oracle provided command line utility: $lsnrctl
Oracle Alert Log

Every Oracle database has one



Logs all oracle errors (ORA- errors) and other
activity (when a log switch occurs, or when a redo
log is archived)
File name always: alert_[dbname].log
First place to look if a serious problem occurs
Database Space Issues

Two ways of administering database:


Command Line
Oracle supplied GUI Tools


Oracle Enterprise Manager
Oracle Grid Control
Database Space Issues (Command
Line)


To check, I would run the space check
monitor and note down any output
Find the locations of the datafiles and their
sizes that contain the object.

Use the Data Dictionary views


Check filesystem space where the datafiles
are located
Two options:

Resize datafile to add space

Add a datafile
Database Space Issues (OEM)



OEM (Oracle Enterprise Manager) is a GUI
tool that makes common database tasks less
time consuming
Adding datafiles or resizing them is just a
point and click operation
Available with recent versions of Oracle
Internship Experience


Thoughts on overall experience
Classes taken at IUP that have helped:




COSC 341 – Database course
COSC 210 and 310 – Java courses
COSC 316 – First introduction to Linux
Classes I wish I had taken:


COSC 362 – Unix
COSC 423 – Intro to Operating Systems
Recommendations

COSC 341 – Database course

Include more SQL Plus Tips and Tricks

Have SQL*Plus prompt for a value:
SQL used to Generate SQL
ORDER BY Clause Shortcut
Acknowledgements and Thanks

I would like to thank

CTi – For giving me the opportunity to work with
the company





Chris Foot – For showing me that I don’t have to code
programs for the rest of my life and for being such a
great teacher
Jayme Puza – Bus buddy!
Brian Hays – For putting up with me 
Friends and Family
Dr. Shubra

Questions?